WICB to shake up first-class structure

In a major structural change in West Indies' first-class cricket structure, the six regional teams will be able to select players from all over the region, and possibly even from overseas. Whycliffe Cameron, the WICB president, said in a television interview that the changes - based on the recommendations of the Pybus Report - would bring a franchise structure to the regional first-class tournament, similar to that of the Caribbean Premier League. Last week, the WICB had already cut the first-class competition down to six teams by excluding Combined Campuses and Colleges.

"We are moving towards a structure where we are going to have players from all over the region playing for different teams," Cameron said. "Effective August and September we are going to have players from all over the region and potentially from outside the region who will be playing for these franchises and we are still going to call them Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad."

Among the recommendations made by Richard Pybus, the WICB director, was also a draft system for first-class cricket. Under this system, each of the territorial boards will be allowed to retain and contract 10 players, with the rest of the region's player pool going into a player draft for the teams to complete their 15-player squads.

"We have announced that coming this year, with the new professional structure, teams will be able to select the best players from around the region," Cameron said. "It is an interesting point however that these teams are going to fall directly under the auspices of the territorial boards."